Under-23 preview | Fulham vs Wolves

Wolves under-23s will be aiming to make it two wins from two in Premier League 2 on Friday lunchtime when they travel to south-west London to take on Fulham.

James Collins’ side got back to winning ways in Division 2 on Monday afternoon after claiming a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace at Aggborough.

Wolves moved up to third place in the table following the win earlier in the week, overtaking Palace and Friday afternoon’s opponent Fulham, now standing just a point ahead of the young Cottagers team, but with two games in hand.

Fulham come into the game in good form having picked up seven points from their four matches of 2021, with their previous fixture in Division 2 last Friday seeing the team overcome Sunderland by two goals to nil.

Due to the match being played at London School of Economic’s Sportsground, the usual live coverage on Wolves TV will NOT be available for this lunchtime’s fixture. Follow @WolvesAcademy on Twitter for match updates, while reaction will follow on wolves.co.uk.

WHEN

Friday, 12pm

WHERE

LSE Sportsground, Surrey

LAST THREE

Wolves

2-0 vs Crystal Palace (H)

1-3 vs Stoke City (A)

0-0 vs Burnley (A)

Fulham

2-0 vs Sunderland (H)

0-0 vs Norwich City (A)

0-3 vs Reading (H)

WHAT THE BOSS THINKS

Head coach James Collins is expecting a tough time against Fulham, who he believes will to use the match to give some of their younger first-team players game time.

“Fulham are always a strong side. They have a good reputation for producing players, and I always think that the Fulhams and the Crystal Palaces of the league are stronger at home because they’ve got an opportunity to drop more of their senior players down.

“This can make them a touch stronger, so we know it’s going to be a tough challenge for us, because with our young group, going away to Fulham if they have one or two more senior players, that will be a tougher challenge for us, but a challenge that we’ll relish.”

Read more from Collins ahead of Friday afternoon’s match here.

WHAT THE PLAYERS THINK

Hong Wan is looking forwards to playing his second match in a week against Fulham having gone three weeks without football.

“In the last two months, we’ve only played three games. We haven’t really been able to get into a flow of games, but hopefully we can rest up, recover and then go again on Friday. It’s another very important game and hopefully we can get the win again.

“We’ve got a really good group here and if we can’t get automatic promotion, we can really push for the play-offs. I don’t see why we couldn’t. It’s very important to win the games and get as many points as we can to get us up the table.

“We’ve got games in hand, but games in hand don’t mean anything unless we win the games.”

NEXT FIVE

26/02 Fulham (A)

05/03 Leeds United (H)

14/03 Sunderland (H)

22/03 Middlesbrough (A)

12/04 Newcastle United (H)

#WolvesAcademy